It represents the duke of Berwick. Samuel
Cooper (1609–1672) was a nephew of Hoskins. He spent much
of his time in Paris and Holland, and very little is known of
his career. His work has a superb breadth and dignity, and
has been well called “life-size work in little.” His portraits
of the men of the Puritan epoch are remarkable for their truth
to life and strength of handling. He painted upon card, chicken
skin and vellum, and on two occasions upon thin pieces of
mutton bone. The use of ivory was not introduced until long
after his time. His work is frequently signed with his initials,
generally in gold, and very often with the addition of the date.
Flatman (d. 1688); Alexander Cooper (d. 1660), who painted a
series of portraits of the children of the king and queen of
Bohemia, now belonging to the German emperor, and several of
whose best miniatures are in the collections of the queen of
Holland and the king of Sweden; David des Granges (1611–1675)
whose work can be seen at Ham House and Windsor Castle;
R. Gibson (1615–1690); Mrs Rosse, his daughter, who so cleverly
imitated the work of Samuel Cooper, and Charles and Mary
Beale, deserve notice at this period. They are followed by
such artists as Lawrence Crosse (d. 1724), Gervase Spencer
(d. 1763), Lens, Nathaniel Hone and Jeremiah Meyer, the
latter two notable in connexion with the foundation of the
Royal Academy. The workers in black lead (plumbago, as
it was called at that time) must not be overlooked, especially
David Loggan, Faithorne, White, Forster and Faber. They
drew with exquisite detail and great effect on paper or vellum.
The 18th century produced a great number of miniature painters,
of whom Richard Cosway (1742–1821) is the most famous.
His works are of great beauty, and executed with a dash and
brilliance which no other artist equalled. His best work was
done about 1799. His portraits are generally on ivory, although
occasionally he worked on paper or vellum, and he produced
a great many full-length pencil drawings on paper, in which
he slightly tinted the faces and hands, and these he called
“stayned” drawings. Cosway’s finest miniatures are signed
on the back; there is but one genuine signed on the face; very
few bear even his initials on the front. George Engleheart
(1750–1829) painted 4900 miniatures, and his work is stronger
and more impressive than that of Cosway; it is often signed
“E” or “G.E.” Andrew Plimer (1763–1837) was a pupil of
Cosway, and both he and his brother Nathaniel produced some
lovely portraits. The brightness of the eyes, wiriness of the
hair, exuberance of colour, combined with forced chiaroscuro
and often Very inaccurate drawing, are characteristics of Andrew
Plimer’s work. John Smart (1741–1811) was in some respects the
greatest of the 18th-century miniaturists. His work excelled in
refinement, power and delicacy; its silky texture and elaborate
finish, and the artist’s love for a brown background, distinguish
it. Other notable painters were Ozias Humphry (1742–1810),
Nixon (1741–1812), Shelley (c. 1750–1808), whose best pictures
are groups of two or more persons, William Wood, a Suffolk
artist (1768–1808), Edridge (1769–1821), Sullivan, Sheriff,
Crosse, Bogle, Daye. In the 19th century J. C. D. Engleheart
(1784–1862), nephew of George: Andrew Robertson (1777–1845),
Beaumont, Behnes, Harlow, Heaphy and Mrs Mee must be
mentioned. Sir Thomas Lawrence painted a few miniatures,
and Raeburn some in his early days; but the art may be said to
have died out with Sir William Ross, the Chalons and Newton,
although some works by Landseer in this form are in existence,
some small paintings of flowers by George Lance, »and one portrait
by Rossetti. Towards the end of the 19th century came a revival
of miniature painting, but without producing any masters of the
same calibre. Alyn Williams and Lloyd amongst Englishmen,
J. W. von Rehling-Quistgaard, the talented Danish miniature
painter, and Bess Norris, an Australian artist, deserve mention.
From about 1650 onwards many fine miniatures were executed in enamel. Petitot (1607–1691) was the greatest worker in this material, and painted his finest portraits in Paris for Louis XIV. His son succeeded him in the same profession. Other artists in enamel were Boit (d. 1727), Zincke (d. 1767), Hurter (1734–1790), Thouron (1737–1789), Liot, Prieur, Spicer, Dinglinger, Vouquer, Bain and Thienpondt. Many of these artists were either Frenchmen or Swiss, but most of them visited England and worked there for a while. The greatest English enamel portrait painter was Henry Bone (1755–1839), the finest of whose productions are now at Kingston Lacy. A great collection of his small enamel reproductions of celebrated paintings is in Buckingham Palace.
The earliest French miniature painters were Jean Clouet (d. c. 1540), his son Francois, Jean Fouquet, Jean Perreal and others; but of their work in portraiture we have little trace at the present day, although there are many portraits and a vast number of drawings attributed to them with more or less reason. The seven portraits in the manuscript of the Gallic War (Bibliothèque Nationale) are assigned to the elder Clouet; and to them may be added a fine work, in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing the Maréschal de Brissac. Following these men we find the two Strèsors, St André, Cotelle and Massé; the fine draughtsmen Picart, Vauthier and Chéron; and then, later on, We know of miniatures by, Largillière, Boucher, Nattier, Montpetit, Desfosses, Drouais, Charlier, Thouron, Perrin and Dubourg; but the greatest names are those of Hall the Swede, Dumont the Frenchman, and Füger the Austrian. The tiny pictures painted by the von Blarenberghe family are by many persons grouped as miniatures, and some of the later French artists, as Prud’hon, Constance Meyer and Dubois, executed miniature portraits, while others whose names might be mentioned were Werner (1637–1710), Rosalba (1675–1757), Chatillon, Pasquier, Marsigli, Garriot, Sicardi and Festa. The most popular artists in France, however, were Augustin (d. 1832) and Isabey (d. 1855). Their portraits of Napoleon and his court are exceedingly fine, and perhaps no other Frenchman painted miniatures so well as did Augustin. The Spanish painter Goya is known to have executed a few miniatures.
Miniatures are painted in oil, water-colour and enamel, but chiefly in water-colour. Many Dutch and German miniatures were painted in oil, and as a rule these are on copper; and there are portraits in the same medium, and often on the same material, attributed to many of the great Italian artists, notably those of the Bologna school. Samuel Cooper is said to have executed a few paintings in oil on copper, but we know little about the artists who prepared the numerous oil portraits in foreign collections.
The work of the 18th century on ivory is, of course, in water-colour. The use of ivory came into general adoption in the early part of the reign of William III., miniatures previous to that time having been painted on vellum, chicken-skin or cardboard, a few on the backs of playing cards, and many more on very thin vellum closely mounted on to playing cards.
The most important collections of miniatures in England in 1907 were those in the possession of the king, the duke of Buccleuch, Mr J. Pierpont Morgan, the duke of Rutland, the earls of Exeter, Ilchester, Dysart, Dartrey (notable for enamel work, some examples of which are of the greatest rarity) and Ancaster (especially notable for works by Cosway), of Earl Beauchamp, the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Sir Gardner Engleheart (remarkable for containing almost exclusively works by the Engleheart family), Lord Weardale, and Messrs Drake, Digby, Williams, Whitehead, and Usher of Lincoln. There is a remarkable collection, principally of works in enamel, in the University Gallery, Oxford, a few fine miniatures at South Kensington, and in the same museum in the Jones collection some splendid works by Petitot, and there are also some famous foreign portrait and picture miniatures in the Wallace Collection, Hertford House, London. The collection at the Louvre is of importance, especially as regards the works of Petitot; that belonging to the queen of Holland of very high merit, and includes some choice works by Holbein and Alexander Cooper; and there is also a very fine collection at Amsterdam, including some of the largest works by Samuel Cooper and the largest known by Hoskins; some very fine ones belong to the Crown of Sweden, and there is a superb but very mixed collection in Peter the Great’s Gallery in St Petersburg, unfortunately in great confusion and needing rearrangement. Many fine miniatures, including some very scarce enamel work by Prieur, are at the Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen; the German emperor and the Crown of Prussia both own some remarkable examples, and there are important collections at Vienna, Florence and Stockholm, and in private hands in Berlin, Moscow and Helsingfors.
